LUCAS L. The public prosecutor of Limoges indicated this Thursday, October 27, 2022 that the main suspect had confessed to having killed Justine Vayrac while they were at his home, after having had consensual sex.
[Mis à jour le 27 octobre à 21h55] The identity and name of Lucas L., who would be the main suspect in the Justine Vayrac case according to several media, was not confirmed during the press conference, Thursday, October 27, by Baptiste Porcher. But according to the public prosecutor of Limoges, the man indicted in the case is 21 years old and would have confessed, a few hours before the end of his police custody, to have killed Justine Vayrac. The suspect indicated that they were at his home at the time of the tragedy, and that the facts would have occurred after consensual sex.
Without explaining the reasons for his action, he said he gave “a punch” that would have been fatal to the 20-year-old young woman. The main suspect would then have moved his body with his car, buried the body using an agricultural machine, then returned to his home to try to clean up the traces of blood at his home. Again, no details on the presence of blood, while he says he only gave a punch, were provided. The suspect, still identified as Lucas L. by several media, was indicted for “rape”, “kidnapping” and “murder” and remanded in custody, said the public prosecutor. He faces a sentence of life imprisonment.
What did Lucas L. admit to the investigators?
Baptiste Porcher, the public prosecutor of Limoges, provided details on the revelations of Lucas L., main suspect in the Justine Vayrac case, to the investigators. He explained this Thursday, October 27 that the man had confessed, a few hours before the end of his police custody, that he had killed the 20-year-old young woman. Lucas L. also told investigators that the murder took place at his home after they had consensual sex. The 21-year-old young man, a farm worker, would then have buried the body of Justine Vayrac using an agricultural machine.
The public prosecutor also indicated that, according to the suspect, the young woman would have died as a result of “a punch”. However, Baptiste Porcher specified that the examinations show “a plurality of blows, including one carried out with a contending weapon”, which contradicts the version of Lucas L. “Other examinations must make it possible to confirm the identity of the body, the cause of death and the nature of the violence suffered, but also the presence of foreign substances in the victim’s blood,” added the prosecutor. It should be noted that Lucas L. only confessed after being confronted with several clues, namely “the victim’s bag, found burnt near his home, the hearing of the witness who heard the telephone ring in the car, the bloodstains in the vehicle, the poorly cleaned ones at her home and the fact that he was the last person to see her alive.”
A “bloody and sensitive” farmer living south of Brive
According to the elements released in the press, Lucas L. is an agricultural worker, based in Beynat (Corrèze), south-east of Brive, the village in which he grew up, describes Le Figaro. Le Parisien even specifies that he works on a farm breeding Limousin cows. A young party man, he had had to deal with the justice system, pinned down in a story of a fire started in an agricultural shed, reports La Dépêche. While described in the local newspaper as “a person who has always behaved well”, this member of the local football club is also known to be “turbulent”, with “a fairly chaotic school career”, according to comments also published by La Dépêche. “I am not surprised to know that he is a suspect in the case of Justine’s disappearance. He is a young person who is both bloody and sensitive, who is on edge,” a relative even told the media. .
The mayor of Beynat, where the suspect is from, said Thursday, October 27, knowing the suspect and his parents: “It is a family that is very well known to Beynat, whose grandfather had been deputy to the It’s a family that is very involved in community life, in football.” Jean-Michel Monteil clarified that Lucas L. was on the town’s festival committee, describing a person “who was always voluntary”. However, he indicated that the suspect was “turbulent at school”, but qualified: “We had never had any problems with him.” “I can’t help but think of the parents of the indicted. I imagine their dismay and their amazement”, continued the city councilor.
How is the suspect described by those around him?
In Beynat, where the suspect resides, it is the most total incomprehension. The people met by certain journalists expressed their amazement on hearing the news, all the more so in view of the respondent. “He is a person who has always behaved well” affirmed to BFM-TV Dimitri, employee in a restaurant where the suspect went. A resident, close to the individual, speaks of a “young man so nice”. One of the members of the village football club, questioned by The Parisianeven presents him as “someone cool and quiet with a festive spirit. He may have done some teenage bullshit but nothing too bad.”
What is the link between Lucas L. and Justine Vayrac?
But what link unites this individual and Justine Vayrac, who lives in Tauriac, in the Lot, 35km south of the village of the man placed in police custody? According to the public prosecutor of Brive, the main suspect “would be a friendly acquaintance met a few times in the nightclub.” Their link seems, in view of the information communicated at this stage, to stop there, especially since the young woman of 20 years is in a relationship and the mother of a little boy of two and a half years.
Why did Lucas L. immediately become the prime suspect?
Very quickly, the whole investigation turned to Lucas L. Indeed, he was presented to the investigators as the last person to have seen Justine before her disappearance. Sunday, around 4 a.m., she had left the disco, drunk and accompanied by a friend, who entrusted her to this man. Whether the respondent had indicated to the investigators that he had dropped her off in an industrial area where she was to be taken care of by another person, nothing came to confirm his thesis.
Suspicions had also been reinforced with regard to the testimony of another young woman, whom the man would have driven, later, also with his vehicle. She told investigators she heard a cell phone ringing in the car, which did not belong to the driver. She had also reported an unusual withdrawn behavior of the man when they were together.
Other elements quickly tightened the noose around the young man. Tuesday, October 24, 2022, in the morning, when the police came to arrest him at his home, he was trying to flee before being caught by the police. During the inspection of his place of residence, traces of blood were discovered in his room assures BFM TV, just like in his car, on the gear knob and the handbrake. On his side, franceinfo added that a shoe which could belong to the disappeared was also discovered in the vehicle. What to support the suspicions.